Preview — My Big TOE
by Thomas Campbell

My Big TOE: Awakening

Book 1 of the MY Big TOE trilogy. My Big TOE, written by a nuclear physicist in the language contemporary culture, unifies science and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, mind and matter, purpose and meaning, the normal and the paranormal.

The entirety of human experience (mind, body, and spirit) including both our objective and subjective worlds is brought together underBook 1 of the MY Big TOE trilogy. My Big TOE, written by a nuclear physicist in the language contemporary culture, unifies science and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, mind and matter, purpose and meaning, the normal and the paranormal.

The entirety of human experience (mind, body, and spirit) including both our objective and subjective worlds is brought together under one seamless scientific understanding.

Book 1: Awakening –

Section 1 provides a partial biography of the author that is pertinent to the subsequent creation of this trilogy. This brief look at the author's unique experience and credentials sheds some light upon the origins of this highly unusual work.

Section 2 lays out and defines the basic conceptual building blocks needed to construct My Big TOE's conceptual foundation. It discusses the cultural beliefs that trap our thinking into a narrow and limited conceptualization of reality, defines the basics of Big Picture epistemology and ontology; logically infers the nature of time, space, and consciousness as well as describes the basic properties, purpose, and mechanics of our reality. Many of the concepts initiated in Section 2 are more fully explained in Book 2.

This could've been great if he'd just been able to say what he wanted to say. But instead of doing that, he decided that he knew the landscape of every reader's mind and proceeded to terraform those minds, then landscape them, then construct a proper nursery where his ideas would have a chance to take root and grow.

I have never read a book where an author talks so much about what he's going to tell you, and does so little actual telling.

If you decide to read this, I recommend starting on chapterThis could've been great if he'd just been able to say what he wanted to say. But instead of doing that, he decided that he knew the landscape of every reader's mind and proceeded to terraform those minds, then landscape them, then construct a proper nursery where his ideas would have a chance to take root and grow.

I have never read a book where an author talks so much about what he's going to tell you, and does so little actual telling.

If you decide to read this, I recommend starting on chapter 2. The introduction, and preface are 12% of the book. That's the first time he tells you about what he's going to tell you. After the very fascinating background story that begins in chapter two, he goes off track again until about 60% of the book.

I just kept skipping pages, looking for when he was going to get to his actual Theory of Everything. Finally, I saw a sentence where he said, "Now let's get back to the theory." And then he proceeded to ramble off-track again until he said the same thing again. Then he rambled more and more and I kept skipping pages until I saw at the end of a paragraph that he said, Now you've been properly primed and initiated, or something to that effect, "So let us begin!" And then there was a few more pages where he builds up to what he's about to finally tell you about his theory and then.... here it comes.... almost there... getting really, really close now.... any sentence now.... and....

...And it's over. That's the end of the first book.

If you're looking for a theory of everything that explains life in the physical and non-physical realms, and is scientifically sound, I do not recommend this book.

Save your money, time, and aggravation and consider reading Our Ultimate Reality - Life, The Universe, & the Destiny of Mankind. (You can find a free PDF online if the $33 paperback is outside your budget.)

You'll come to the same conclusion as you would if you read all three of Campbell's books, but without beating every square inch of every acre surrounding the bush.

Campbell needs to try reading his own book to discover what a tedious and unsatisfying experience it is. He needs to redo it, starting from where his background story ended, and pick it up from there, making it a personal story of his experiences, and inserting what he learned along the way, how he learned it, and how he confirmed that what he learned was valid and scientific.

I would only recommend that you read this if you're a scientist and you want to imagine things not in directly spoken language, but with everything reduced to an abstract model with acronyms you'll need to memorize to make sense of anything the further and further you find yourself out on a thinning semantic branch....more

The ideas, the thoughts are good, but my god, is this book damn tedious. There are numerous ways to present this without making your reader fall asleep every single time he picks up the book. I've read other author's works on similar topics and they did not bore me to death as much as this one did.

However, who am i to say that it's bad? it's Tom Campbell after all. All i'm saying is that his style is not for me. I couldn't even GET TO the ideas over the tediousness of his writing style.. PerhapsThe ideas, the thoughts are good, but my god, is this book damn tedious. There are numerous ways to present this without making your reader fall asleep every single time he picks up the book. I've read other author's works on similar topics and they did not bore me to death as much as this one did.

However, who am i to say that it's bad? it's Tom Campbell after all. All i'm saying is that his style is not for me. I couldn't even GET TO the ideas over the tediousness of his writing style.. Perhaps there are people who this books speaks better to (like my friend who gave it to me to read), but if you have already read something of the like, chances are that you'll just be bored to death with the over-explaining....more

A tough read. It took me a while. There's a lot to learn and to unlearn here. 1/3 of the trilogy is done for now. I'm sure I'll be going back with highlighter in hand the second time around. Enlightening, daunting, frustrating, exhilarating.... The kind of stuff I tend to gravitate to and kind of how I tend to grapple with things when I'm trying to write myself. Reading and writing should always be about discovery. And entertaining enough to keep you going. And this part of the Big Toe is just tA tough read. It took me a while. There's a lot to learn and to unlearn here. 1/3 of the trilogy is done for now. I'm sure I'll be going back with highlighter in hand the second time around. Enlightening, daunting, frustrating, exhilarating.... The kind of stuff I tend to gravitate to and kind of how I tend to grapple with things when I'm trying to write myself. Reading and writing should always be about discovery. And entertaining enough to keep you going. And this part of the Big Toe is just that...and more. Give it a try. It can only wake you up...at worst. ...more

First one down, two more to go. This challenging book has changed my worldview, and in turn my life, more than any other book. TOE stands for Theory of Everything. Thomas Campbell is a physicist and consciousness researcher who relates some of his personal journey ("skin in the game," as Nassim Taleb would say approvingly) in improving the quality of his consciousness, namely, evolving toward love. Using the most basic and fundamental concepts of science, Campbell asks the reader to be an open-mFirst one down, two more to go. This challenging book has changed my worldview, and in turn my life, more than any other book. TOE stands for Theory of Everything. Thomas Campbell is a physicist and consciousness researcher who relates some of his personal journey ("skin in the game," as Nassim Taleb would say approvingly) in improving the quality of his consciousness, namely, evolving toward love. Using the most basic and fundamental concepts of science, Campbell asks the reader to be an open-minded skeptic while sharing his contrarian explanation for how all phenomena can be unified, from the Big Bang to love.

For any literal-minded, logical, left-brained types who struggle to understand how it is that we wake up in the world every day to *this* experience, have to deal with so many different kinds of problems, and sometimes experience existential angst, Campbell's first book provides the reader with clues for how to value experience and improve the quality of our consciousness. There is no dogma here, and no egotistical "advice"--just ancient wisdom for understanding the ocean of consciousness we are floating around in, put into common computing terms for the modern readership. While reading, I had to create a separate spreadsheet just to keep track of the quotes and ideas that really picked my lock and set my literal, logical mind free.

After reading this book, I now have good reason to think any thoughts I am capable of thinking, stray from my routine for any reason, never feel trapped or un-free in my decision making, feel genuine belonging at all times, and not fear the *game over* of death. This book took me forever to read because I found the ideas dangerous to my sense of understanding of my world. However, nothing ceased to exist (except some of my ego), and my life and the outside world go on just as they always have. A blown mind heals, I find.

Always a skeptic, however, Campbell says: "An individual's quality cannot be increased one single iota by any belief, or by accumulating information about anything, or by doing good deeds that are not properly motivated, or by talking to others or reading books."

One must live it. I highly recommend this to any reader who is ready for a worthwhile challenge. Well worth the investment....more

I gave this book three stars because it is not well written on a number of levels. Having said that, I would encourage anyone/everyone to read this book because Campbell has some great science to back up a philosophy about the Ultimate Questions. If it did nothing more than to stir the neurons in your brain in a different direction - and it probably will - this book would be worth the several levels of tediousness it is written in. There is still a lot of excitement in the ideas Campbell offers.I gave this book three stars because it is not well written on a number of levels. Having said that, I would encourage anyone/everyone to read this book because Campbell has some great science to back up a philosophy about the Ultimate Questions. If it did nothing more than to stir the neurons in your brain in a different direction - and it probably will - this book would be worth the several levels of tediousness it is written in. There is still a lot of excitement in the ideas Campbell offers. And what is more, he offers hope for the human race and for our world. REad it. I am not competent to do more than say "read it."...more

Tom Campbell's Big Toe (Big Theory of Everything, not the one on his foot) is quite fascinating and I've been enjoying his lectures on YouTube for a few years now. I finally got around to reading his first book in the trilogy, in which he describes his beginnings as a young physicist collaborating with Robert Monroe and developing consciousness research protocols.

I've found the first section of the book, the biographical part, to be quite enjoyable and well written. The second part of the book,Tom Campbell's Big Toe (Big Theory of Everything, not the one on his foot) is quite fascinating and I've been enjoying his lectures on YouTube for a few years now. I finally got around to reading his first book in the trilogy, in which he describes his beginnings as a young physicist collaborating with Robert Monroe and developing consciousness research protocols.

I've found the first section of the book, the biographical part, to be quite enjoyable and well written. The second part of the book, which touches upon the basic foundations of his theory and the mathematics behind it, could have, as others have already commented, been more engaging in spite of the highly interesting subject matter it deals with. Then again, an attempt to make the theory more palatable would likely lend itself to anthropomorphizing a theory that is grounded in abstract probability states of linear non physical base existence (the absolute unbound oneness / manifold) which would make things seem more relatable but paradoxically further obfuscate any meaning.

It's difficult to rate this book and I have a lot of conflicted feelings about my experience with it. There are several strong points and aspects that I did appreciate, but there are also a lot of things that could have been omitted.

The Positives:- An enjoyable subjective narrative in the first section - A highly interesting and solid theory that encourages you to think and wonder- Some good pointers on practical meditation techniques- A constant reminder to remain open-minded and skeptical throughout the book- A good section discussing the limitations of belief-traps and the difference between knowledge derived from first hand experience (widsom) and second-hand knowledge accepted as belief (pseudo-knowledge / ignorance)- Tom's sense of humor

The Negatives:- Sometimes tedious writing - especially the sections on space-time and time quantas- An extremely abstract and long-winded postulate on the base potential of larger reality from which physical and non-physical matter subsets are derived- A LOT of repetition that starts with the preface and continues throughout the book- Too much fluff (although helpful in reinforcing certain concepts), it feels like the book ended just when it was starting to discuss the more interesting connections and workings of his theory in detail (these will hopefully be elaborated upon in books 2 and 3...)- Tom's sense of humor

Tom's theory and ideas can be intriguing, useful and applicable (though I've derived most of my general understanding from his lectures, not this book) if approached with an open and critical mindset. I wish some of the fluff would have been made obsolete and it just wasn't so tedious to read in the later chapters. Tom added in a lot of humor which is a nice gesture and some of it comes across as quirky and somewhat funny. In other parts, however, I find his jokes to be a little inappropriate; especially when discussing complex theorems and suddenly adding in a lengthy segue into a rather tired joke - it doesn't help.

Tom is a great speaker and lecturer and trying to read this book in his voice certainly makes it more digestible. I will continue onwards to the second book of the trilogy, but I feel like I need a break before I do so and read a book or two with stronger literary merit.

Overall, I suggest Tom's Big Toe and concepts to everyone with an open and skeptical mind; however, this book might be better suited for those already familiar with his work, who wish to gain deeper understanding and insight into the deductive reasoning and scientific models on which his theory is based.

This first book in the trilogy presents great content with increasing mediocrity....more

The phrasing is careful, and at times dense. But, the subject was so fresh and fascinating that I could forgive a lot.

The idea of a Oneness isn't new, but I'm used to enjoying my metaphysics served up with a big side of woo-woo. Not so common is a book like this, written by a no-nonsense, left-brained nerd like Campbell.

There are two more pieces of the story, which he promises we'll like even more. Fair enough : I've got Book 2 warming on the Kindle.

It's a so-called scientific book on metaphysics. As entertaining and fascinating as the topic is, what a bunch of horse shit. In the first section alone, ex-nuclear-physicist Thomas Campbell confidently claims to have developed the ability to communicate telepathically. He denounces drug-induced out-of-body-experiences, yet spends eight hours a day zapping his brain with electrodes for a "natural" trip.

I wonder what sci-fi i have to look forward to in books 2&aTo be taken with a grain of salt...

It's a so-called scientific book on metaphysics. As entertaining and fascinating as the topic is, what a bunch of horse shit. In the first section alone, ex-nuclear-physicist Thomas Campbell confidently claims to have developed the ability to communicate telepathically. He denounces drug-induced out-of-body-experiences, yet spends eight hours a day zapping his brain with electrodes for a "natural" trip.

I wonder what sci-fi i have to look forward to in books 2&3, because at this point it's just that.

Thomas Campbell's personal story is thrilling to read. And then there's the second half of the book... Good thing I'm used to working with engineers! Gives me some tolerance for the lengthy explanations. Still, I'm on to the second book in the trilogy. The ideas are simply too profound and exciting to throw out due to presentation.